


Coming Out Of My Throat

by Winterkissed_Jasmine



Category: RWBY
Genre: 5+1 Things, Based off that Summer Rose is a maiden, Mention of RubyxQrow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:55:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5801683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterkissed_Jasmine/pseuds/Winterkissed_Jasmine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby Rose had always felt something inside of her, a beast waiting to get out, but each time it bucked, there were always people there to stop it, until there wasn't.</p><p>In other words, the five times Ruby almost snapped, and the one time she actually did.</p><p>(Based of my head-cannon that Summer Rose was a maiden, and gave the powers to Ruby)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Out Of My Throat

**Author's Note:**

> Song: Soap by Melanie Martinez

**1.**

Ruby's first memory was waking up one morning, and finding her father raging in the living room. Scorch marks raced their way up the walls, black smears, the smell of ash and flame making her want to retch. His eyes were crimson, but silver lined them, tears running down his face as he slammed his fist into the ground, shattering the fragile wood flooring beneath. Her own tears, confused, not understanding, came up, and a small cry came from her mouth, loud enough for her father to turn toward her. 

His red eyes landed on hers, and several emotions passed over Tai's face. Confusion, understanding, horror, and fury. She shrank back at the last two, not comprehending, wondering why her father looked so angry, why his wrath was directing at her. He stepped forward, and Ruby was reminded of the one time she had seen a Grimm, before Qrow had swooped in, and how frightening it looked, and her father looked like a Grimm, with his bright red eyes, lips curled into a snarl. 

She didn't understand, at first, why he was so furious, why he looked at his own daughter with such hatred on his face. It made her frightened, and when she stepped back, she slipped, slamming into the ground, watching in fear as her father approached. 

It was the first time she felt something inside of her twist, a slight shudder that vibrated out from her soul, frostbite curling around her skin. It wasn't a terrible feeling, simply new, and it surprised Ruby. It was as if you touched a new texture for the first time, you would continue to brush your fingers, until it made sense. And this sort of feeling curled around Ruby like the smoke and flame burning off her father's hair. She could feel it coming up her throat, pushing its way up, running through her veins, down her fingers, threatening to spill. And as her father stepped closer, the feeling only intensified, and something inside of her started to break...

" _Tai_." The familiar voice of Uncle Qrow made Tai pause, and the redness of his eyes faded, but the tears came fresh as he stared down at his daughter, before turning and running off. Ruby watched, the bizarreness going on inside of her making her dizzy, as if she was watching her father run away from the outside, a ghost. 

Qrow came into her vision, and his red eyes seemed so vastly different from her father's. They were gentle, made of warmth and kindness. Qrow was better at hiding his emotions, so when he took in Ruby's silver eyes, when they had once been lilac, he held it back, and knew what she was, what had happened. His arms were soft and familiar to Ruby as he wrapped them around her small, shivering form, and held her close. 

The sensation inside of her faded to background music, and Ruby soon forgot that she ever had lilac eyes. 

**2.**

Ruby was older now, and was in Signal, swinging around her deadly scythe with a shiver-inducing ease, as if it were nothing more than a simple toy. Even Yang, with her supreme strength, could not lift the gigantic thing that Ruby wielded with ease. Crescent Rose, for all purposes, was just an extension to Ruby's arm, and the more she trained with Qrow, the more Qrow could see her becoming a savior, a hero. 

And the more Qrow trained with Ruby, the more closer he had become to her, the more his shattered heart came to reconnect. The pain he had felt when Summer died was slowly starting to fade away, as the girl with her mother's silver eyes and red cloak made him smile.

The years of her mother's passing had taken a toll for Ruby, however. Ever since that day, where he found Tai approaching his daughter like a bull who had seen red, Ruby's own father had been distant. Qrow understood the pain that Tai felt when he looked at Ruby, as he had felt it once too, but Tai was harder at concealing his emotions. His words became clipped, cold, sharp, whenever Ruby was around.

Tai didn't praise Ruby like he did with Yang. He didn't scoop up Ruby, swing her around, or teach her how to throw bone-crunching punches. Instead, he left that burden on Qrow, and Qrow did his damned best to make sure Ruby didn't notice Tai and his coldness. But Qrow knew that Ruby knew that Tai didn't love her. He knew that she assumed it was because she looked so much like Summer, and Qrow supposed that was part of it. With her silver eyes, bi-colored hair, and hood that looked so similar, even Qrow sometimes mistaken Ruby for Summer. 

But Ruby was leagues different from Summer. Where Summer had rarely smiled, Ruby was always grinning, her eyes twinkling with something that made all teachers wary. Where Summer hated the life of battle, Ruby loved it, her joy and passion coming from learning out to battle, how to kill. 

No, the reason why Tai hated Ruby, was because he knew that she would die. He knew that her lifeline was short, that what she inherited from Summer meant perishing. It was something Qrow knew as well, but he always shoved it in the back of his head. He ignored that part of Ruby, and focused on the parts that made her an excellent fighter, and that tugged at his heart-strings.

So when another teacher threw his door open with, "Your niece has gotten into a fight!" 

The word  _niece_ had thrown Qrow for a loop, and his mind automatically went to Yang, and he looked down dismissively. "Yang? She always gets in fights." He felt more sorry for the person she was fighting, truth be told. Yang had adopted her father's fiery and cautionless personality, and threw deadly and killer punches the angrier she got.

The next words made Qrow shooting past the teacher. " _No, it's Ruby_."

Fear twisted through his stomach, and he understood, no matter how much he tried to ignore it, what would happen if Ruby snapped. She could destroy all of Signal. He followed the sounds of cheering, of shouts, and shoved his way through the ring of students that crowded around, stopping at the edge of fight. 

Ruby's silver eyes were blazing, something that the other students would dismiss for the light from the windows gleaming down, or the pure anger that radiated from her, but Qrow knew that it was more dangerous than what they thought. He lunged forward, curling his arms around her waist, yanking her off the other boy, pressing her hard against his chest, his voice ragged in her ear. "Ruby,  _enough_!" 

Qrow could feel the heat burning through her clothes, from her body, and when the boy glanced up, her skin burned more intensely, almost painfully, against his. A shout came from Tai to to get her out, but Qrow was already shoving through the crowd, rushing to get her somewhere where she wouldn't explode and kill other students. 

But as he held her, as he carried her away, she cooled remarkably, and the fire in her silver eyes faded away. 

The ground, the feelings, had shifted between them, he knew, after the events of that day, and it made him feel oh-so sick. But he felt worse, knowing that Ruby was becoming more unstable, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop her.

**3.**

Glynda crouched on the rooftop of a building beside a small shop of dust. " _From Dust to Dawn"._ A title, that in all other situations, would've made Glynda amused, if the person she was watching hadn't been in the store for almost  _an hour._ Part of her wanted to stretch, the other part of her wanted to call up Ozpin and yell at him, but she was a Huntress. She took a deeper breath, calmed her tiring bones. 

She could remember the desperation in Qrow's voice, when he found her after she, at first, denied the mission to watch over a 15 year old girl. 

_"Please, Glynda," His red eyes were alight with worry, with barely hidden fear. The smell of whiskey and vodka drifted from him, but she was more focused on the fact that this was the most emotion Qrow had shown to her since Summer's death, when he tried to kill Ozpin in a fit of rage._

_He tried to rationalize it, saying that Ruby could snap any time, and she would need someone to watch over her to make sure she didn't, but she could see the actual worry in his eyes. He was worried that Ruby, if she did snap, would accidentally kill herself._

Glynda sighed, ran a weary hand over her face, and shifted to a more comfortable position. She had suspected Qrow's... deeper feelings, since Qrow had almost sliced off Ironwood's head when they suggested taking her away and putting her in hiding, for suggesting that Qrow wasn't capable for handling Ruby. And his worry, his begging for Glynda to watch her while he was off on his own mission, only confirmed her suspicions. 

The sound of footsteps made her automatically ready, her hand curling around her crop-whip, senses becoming hyper-aware. A group, led by a man in a white jacket and red hair approached, a sneer on his face as he took in the dust shop, his hand curling around the cane. The other men, all wearing the same gear, glared around warily, almost like bodyguards. _Robbers._  As soon as they stepped in, she readied herself, prepared to leap down, when the window to the shop shattered, and a henchmen came flying out. 

She froze, surprise locking her limbs to stillness, watching in amazement as a red blur followed, slamming the man into the ground harshly. The other henchmen poured out, surrounding the poor girl, and Glynda yet again was shocked into freezing as this small, young child took them on by themselves. She was too high on the building to hear what Ruby shouted, but the leader of the robbers laughed, his cane firing out a burst of flame, erupting in front of her, as she threw herself backwards.

He vanished up a ladder, and Ruby soon followed, much to Glynda's dismay. 

She could definitely see Qrow in the young girl.

Glynda followed warily, keeping to the sides, watching as the fight between the two ensued, ending as he stepped onto a plane, jeering.

It was then Glynda saw the change. It was subtle, something that could easily be excused from anger or the moonlight glinting. It was a soft, red haze that surrounded the young girl, how Ruby's silver eyes glowed just a tad brighter. Her aura changed as well, twisted into something darker, more exotic. The whole world stilled for a moment, held on the breath as the young girl seemed to change, as the man threw a gleaming, red Dust Crystal at her feet. 

Glynda reacted without thinking, lunging from where she was hidden, throwing herself in front of Ruby, and at the same time, shoving Ruby back, creating a shield that blocked the fiery explosion. When she glanced back, the dark aura was gone, and the young girl was staring up at her in amazement. 

Glynda understood why Qrow had asked her to watch over the young girl. 

**4.**

Doctor Oobleck wasn't aware of why Qrow, Glynda, and Ozpin had all pressed to have a careful eye on Ruby Rose. She seemed like a perfectly normal child, a strong-headed leader who knew her teammates, with a bit of a carefree attitude that he knew he got from her older sister, Yang. 

It wasn't until the train was rushing below their feet, and the rest of her teammates dove below to fight in the actual train. He stopped her from following, always the professor, knowing it would be an important lesson to them all not to have their leader always guiding them, to work on their independence. 

It wasn't until the Atleasian Paladin had slammed into her, throwing her back against the train, and she skidded dangerously to the edge. She reacted faster than he, digging the edge of her scythe into the train, clinging to it tightly to avoid rushing off the fast-moving train. 

It wasn't until she rose to her feet, her aura taking some damage, shattering a bit in some places, leaving bruises and a bleeding gash across her arm. Bartholomew watched as the world seemed to convulse around Ruby, as the gash on her arm slowly stitched itself back together. Fury twisted through her expression, and she took a step forward, her weapon curving around her. 

It was almost as if she wasn't aware what was happening, and what was radiating off of her. To Bartholomew, it felt like what a Grimm feels like, bearing down upon him. Pure, unadulterated, power. Rose petals escaped from her as she walked, smelling off blood and sickly sweet, a red haze seeming to come out from around her. 

He had heard of tales... of a belief... from an old fairytale...

The Doctor shot without thinking, several jets of flame swirling from his own weapon, slamming into the Paladin in one big jet, throwing the giant mechanical solider off the train. The girl turned toward him, looking a bit dazed, but he saw the red haze fading, the rose petals around her feet vanishing, and she didn't seem to remember the gash that had healed on her arm.

As he sent her forward, to stop the train, he had one train of thought: He was going to have a stern-talking with Ozpin. 

**5.**

Mercury watched as Ruby stared at him with confusion, her eyes flicking on his legs as he stood there, toward the hallway behind her, and he chuckled as the realization seemed to dawn on her. She took a step back, looking horrified, a small choked gasp coming from her. 

"Mercury...?" Her voice was just as weak as the rest of her. How fitting, he thought, that everything about this little leader was such a weakling. "What... what are you doing?" 

He let out a low chuckle, and as the announcements came from outside, vibrating through the stone hallways, shouting out the next match. "Showtime," He grinned, and lunged. 

Her defenses were barely there, and without her weed-whacker, she could only barely block, trying, in vain, to fight back. He watched as her whole body tensed, as she threw herself forward, a small red and black tornado, that his legs reacted to by themselves, and kicked her out of the air.

She skidded, and her hand flashed to her side, trying to bring out her scroll, which he lazily shot out of her hand. "Let's just keep this between us...  _friends_." He said the last part with a terrifying, feral grin, and approached her, savoring the fear on her face as she stared up at him. He could kill, he knew, so easily. He could shatter his aura with simplicity, and throw her against the wall, snapping her back.

It wasn't what Cinder wanted, but  _fuck_ Cinder. He was always done with her yapping, with Emerald yapping, with Roman yapping, like three, annoying, tiny Chihuahuas that tried to look fierce and failed.

It took him longer than he'd like to admit to notice the change.

Her whole body seemed to change, she seemed to get bigger, and she rose, unsteadily, to her feet. He stepped back, without realizing, some internal part of him cringing away before his mind could catch up. Mercury didn't realize that he had seen this before until her head snapped forward, and her silver eyes alit with steel-flame. They were different, colder, sharper, and the whole world around them shuddered. Mercury didn't realize that he had fought the same thing several years before. 

When she lunged forward again, a swirling tornado, but when she lunged forward, it wasn't to try to get past him, it was to tear through his chest. He dodged it, throwing himself to the side, letting her rush past. 

She seemed surprised, but obviously didn't take her chances, instead speeding forward, leaving him in a flurry of rose petals.

It was then that he realized. 

When he caught up, he found her on her knees, sobbing, the powers faded, and a grin on his face.

He had  _such_ interesting things to tell Cinder.

**6.**

Ruby Rose watched as the battle rocked from side to side. At first, it was in Cinder's favor, then theirs, as Qrow and Goodwitch joined in, and then Cinder's again, as the White Fang and Roman came. Now, it seemed to stay in Cinder's side. Even, she saw, Qrow was tiring, fighting back several dozen's of White Fang members, his mouth in a hard line as he fought viciously back. 

She was a ship in a storm, teetering dangerously, the waves of battle rushing around her, leaving her unsteadily in the middle. She didn't know who to go to. Should she go to Qrow, help him fight, fall into his embrace? Or go to Yang, who fought back Emerald and Mercury? Or to Weiss and Goodwitch, who furiously threw back the Grimm with their powers? Or to Blake, who's silver tears streamed down her cheeks as she fought against Adam?

She stepped forward, stepped back, unsteady, unable to think as the storm tightened it's hold on her. Her heart told her to do so many things, her brain tugged her in several places, her body seemed twisted, and she was hopelessly confused. 

Ruby most likely would have stayed in the place, unsure, dizzy, if the flash of white hadn't caught her attention.

If she hadn't seen the arrow, silver and white, fly through the air.

If she didn't see that arrow slam into its target.

If she didn't see Weiss arch her back, her mouth parting in surprise, her eyes widening in pain. 

If she hadn't watched Myrtenaster fall from her fingers. 

The sensation she had felt build up inside of Ruby snapped. A glass ball inside of her shattered, and all the contents poured out. It sent flames through her veins, and sparks came from her fingers.

She wasn't sure what was happening as her body was lifted from the ground, as the air around her swirled in a fiery tornado, as her eyes burned with silver flame. 

Qrow cried out something, his voice hanging out like a tether line that stayed just out of reach. Instead, she turned away, toward Cinder, who stared at her with something akin to lust, lust that Ruby knew was for the power that coursed through her body, and fear. 

When Ruby shot forward, her cloak streaming flaming rose petals, as she pulled down Crescent Rose and slammed into Cinder's blades, the world exploded. 

And everything inside of her snapped.


End file.
